Releases

BOWERY ELECTRIC - LUSHLIFE LP IN STORES FEB. 1

1 February 2019

Bowery Electric’s third release, LushLife, has not been available on vinyl since it’s release. Beautifully
mastered at Metropolis Studios by John Davis, the album is available once again from Beggars Arkive
worldwide February 1, 2019.
Originally released in early 2000 by Beggars Banquet, Lushlife peaked at No. 14 on the CMJ Top 200
chart and No. 11 on the Core Radio chart. Nearly two years in the making, Lushlife, in what would
become the band’s final album, took even greater strides forward from previous releases.
The album teems with atomized sounds, each one opening a portal in the mix, importing a haze of
space and history, evoking the distant buzz of the city beyond the studio.
Throughout, gilded strings build, sway and exhale, plugging the music into the sumptuous melancholy
of Philly soul, the emotive Mancini-inspired arrangements of Gaye and Mayfield and the edgy soundtrack
scores of David Shire. Yet with all the experiment and variation, Lushlife is actually quite a deliberate and
enticing affair for the ear and mind.
Lawrence Chandler and Martha Schwendener met while working at Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine
and formed Bowery Electric in late 1993. The band earned critical acclaim for experimentation across
genres, mixing elements of ambient, drone, electronic, experimental, IDM, minimal and rock music with
’70’s soul soundtracks, disco, drum and bass, dub and hip hop. Their self-titled debut was named by
Pitchfork as one of the best shoegaze albums of all time. Their second album Beat was praised by The
Wire as “genre-defining”. On Lushlife the touchstone is trip-hop – but set in Brooklyn and through the
Bowery Electric filter. The beats are lithe, crisp and deep and lines are perpetually blurred between
samples (of which there are more than 75) and live instruments.
Following the Lushlife tour in 2000 the band went on hiatus. Chandler studied composition privately with
La Monte Young and Pauline Oliveros and at The Juilliard School and Goldsmiths College and worked for
Philip Glass. He returned in 2009 with “Everybody Here Is Fine” commissioned for Make Music New
York. Recent works include “Music for Rock Ensemble” commissioned for 50 Years of Minimalism and
The Tuning of the World, a 24-hour sustained tone composition. His current band is London-based
alternative / electronic duo Happy Families.
Schwendener released the solo electronica album Sola in 2003 on Instinct Records and is now a highly
regarded art critic on staff at the New York Times. She is also a visiting professor at New York University
and a critic in photography at the Yale University School of Art.

“A morphine drip of an album.” – Austin Chronicle

“With impossibly crisp beats and Schwendener’s gauzy tease of a voice (think Georgia Hubley on
Prozac), the two create the impression that they can see in the dark, and use their music to assure us
that it’s not so bad in the shadows.” – CMJ

Manhattan-based drone-rock duo Bowery Electric comprised vocalist/guitarist Lawrence Chandler, a
former protégé of minimalist composer LaMonte Young, and vocalist/bassist Martha Schwendener.
Originally a three-piece rounded out by a series of drummers, Bowery Electric bowed in 1994 with a
double 7” on their self-owned Hi-Fidelity Recordings which helped land them on the indie label Kranky,
which issued their self-titled debut LP in 1995. With 1996’s Beat, the duo’s swirling, chaotic sound began
to incorporate elements of the electronica movement; a subsequent series of 12” remixes by the likes of
Disjecta, CHASM, and Immersion further solidified their new affiliation with electronic music, as did
1997’s remix collection Vertigo. The long-awaited Lushlife finally appeared in early 2000.

Selections:

Side A
Floating World
Lushlife
Shook Ones
Psalms of Survival
Soul City